There was also the purple and pink plastic beaded bracelet. It seemed like an odd piece of jewelry for a girl as wealthy as Pamela North to wear. But sometimes young women liked cute items like that, regardless of whether it was expensive or not. Either the killer was trying to burn it for some reason, or it belonged to the killer.
I flipped the channel from the local news and found a national news program where a cooking segment was in process. A young woman that I didn’t recognize was extolling the virtues of safe grilling and putting together a foil packet of vegetables to put on the grill. It made me homesick for my morning cooking show, and I lay back and watched her work. She was very good at what she was doing, continuing to mix ingredients, and commenting on what she was doing without missing a beat. She spoke quickly, necessary for a news program with limited time allotted for a segment.
“Everyone knows grilling is at the top of everyone’s list for summer fun,” the woman said brightly. “Can’t you just see it? Load up the car with the kids, the barbecue, the food, and the swimming gear and head out to the water. What could be better? This is how we make summer memories at my house. But, be sure and take lots of sunscreen, and keep your feet safe by wearing appropriate footwear like flip-flops or water shoes, so the little ones don’t cut their feet on anything that might hidden be in the sand.”
I sat up quickly, causing Maggie to take a step back. I reached over and scratch her head in apology and swung my legs over the side of the couch. The appropriate footwear would be necessary when going out to the river. There were sharp stones along the riverbank and in the water, as well as trash previous tourists had left behind like bottle caps, tin cans, and sometimes broken beer bottles. No one would go to the river without being careful of their feet. The purple flip-flops from Pamela’s trunk flashed across my mind. The flip-flops were important. Someone had taken the appropriate precautions.
I picked up my cell phone from the end table and quickly texted Cade. Then I got up, put my own protective footwear on in the form of white canvas shoes, grabbed my purse, and headed out the door.
Chapter Twenty-three
I ignored the vibrating phone in my front pocket. I knew Cade was trying to get a hold of me, but I was on a mission as I wove between customers in the store. I knew exactly what I was doing. We were in a public place and I couldn’t imagine what could go wrong.
I walked behind the slightly built girl and stopped. I could feel my heart pounding in my chest, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. She must have sensed me standing there because she slowly turned around to look at me. Confusion flashed across her face briefly, followed by a bright smile. Then slowly, the smile left her face.
“Hi, Rainey? Isn’t it?” she said looking at me doubtfully.
I nodded my head. “Yes, you’ve got it right, Amber. Tell me, Amber, I need to pick up some barbecue supplies. They’re sold here at the hardware store, aren’t they?”
She nodded and gave me an uncertain smile. “Yes, we have a barbecue section at the front of the store. You probably passed it on your way in,” she said doubtfully.
My eyes went to her feet. She was wearing a pair of black Nike shoes, and from the looks of it, her feet were tiny. My eyes met hers again. “Oh, I’m being silly, of course I did,” I said, nodding slowly. “Tell me Amber, do you barbecue much? Like, down at the river? I have five nieces and nephews and I need to plan a trip to the river with them before the summer is over. And I was just thinking how much fun it would be if we all went to the river for a swim and then had a barbecue later.”
She nodded her head hesitantly and her eyes flicked to a passing customer. “Yes, my friends and I go down to the river now and then. We go at least once a summer and sometimes more. I’m sure your nieces and nephews would love to barbecue at the river.” Her face went white, and she glanced over her shoulder.
I nodded. “I knew you would have the answer to my dilemma. Tell me, my car isn’t very big, so what kind of barbecue grill should I get? A small one, do you think?”
She stared at me and I could see the beginning of panic in her eyes. “Well, you know, Barry is over in the barbecue department, and I bet he would have answers for you. He’s really very knowledgeable about that sort of thing.”
I nodded. “Do you ask Barry for advice about your own barbecue needs?” I felt the phone in my pocket vibrate again, but I ignored it.
Amber’s mouth opened and then closed. “Yes, I find that most of my coworkers specialize in different things and someone somewhere has the answer for whatever I might need. Really, you should go and speak with Barry.”
“I bet he’d know which lighter fluid catches fire the quickest, wouldn’t he?”
Her mouth dropped open again. She looked over her shoulder and then back at me. “I’m sure he would. It’s not something that I’ve ever asked him though.”
I nodded. “It’s good to know people who know how to get things done isn’t it?” My eyes went to her feet again. “My goodness, you and I have something in common, don’t we? You have the tiniest feet. My feet are only a size six, how about yours?”
Her eyes went to my feet and then to her own and she moved one behind the other. “Yes, that’s exactly the size of my feet. I’m sorry, what were you looking for today?”
I shrugged. “Answers.” I stared at her without saying anything more and I could see tears forming in her eyes. Before I could say anything else, she turned and sprinted through the home improvement store and I gave chase.
Customers turned and looked at us wide-eyed, many scrambling to get out of our way. Amber was smaller than I was, but she was fast. I was thankful that I kept myself in good condition as I ran behind her, dodging customers, shopping carts, and displays.
“Hey!” I heard someone shout at us as we passed. I didn’t have time to look over my shoulder to see who it was, but from the blur of what looked like a red vest, it made me think it was probably an employee. In chasing after Amber, I thought I might find myself getting tackled by one of her co-workers.
“Amber! Stop right now!” I called after her. When she didn’t respond, not even so much as to look back over her shoulder, I pushed myself to run faster.
When she hit the front door, Amber shoved the automatic glass door open instead of waiting for it to slide open on its tracks.
“Stop, Amber!” I called again.
She sprinted out into the parking lot and before I could say anything else, a small white Honda clipped Amber’s thigh as the driver slammed on the brakes too late. Amber flew several feet in the air, her glasses flying in the opposite direction as her body, and landed face first on the asphalt. I hesitated a moment and then as Amber tried to get back up, I hurried forward. The driver of the car got out, looking confused.
The driver was a middle-aged woman and the look of confusion turned to horror. “Oh my gosh, I never even saw her. Are you okay?” the woman asked, quickly coming to Amber’s side and squatting beside her.
“It’s okay, she wasn’t watching where she was going,” I said breathlessly, as I kneeled on the other side of Amber. “Amber, are you okay?”
“Oh, my,” the driver said. “I didn’t mean to hit her.”
Amber struggled to push herself up onto her forearms and tried to pull up the leg that had been hit to get to her knees, but she winced and cried out.
“Just lay still, Amber,” I said and pulled the phone out of my pocket. Before I could call for an ambulance, Cade was on foot, crossing the parking lot toward us.
Amber put her head down on her arms and sobbed. “I couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t help it. You don’t know what it was like living with her.”
Cade got to us, a look of alarm on his face. “What’s going on Rainey?” he said looking from me to the driver and then to Amber.
“Amber accidentally ran out in front of a car. Can you call an ambulance?”
Before he could answer, I heard sirens. “That was fast,” I said.
“I didn’t call
them,” he said and put a hand on Amber’s shoulder. “Amber, are you okay? Where does it hurt?”
Amber lifted her head to look at him. Black pavement marred her cheek and forehead and blood trickled down her scraped chin. “I think my hip is broken.”
“Don’t move then,” he said as a police car pulled up with its lights flashing. He waited for the officer to get out of the vehicle. “Call an ambulance for us, Steve. And please get this lady’s information and a report of what happened,” he said indicating the driver.
Officer Steve did as he was told and then took the driver off to the side so he could question her. When they were both out of hearing range Cade looked at me, eyebrows furrowed. “What’s going on here?”
A large crowd had gathered and two store employees began directing traffic around us. The store manager ran up to us, looking at Amber on the ground and then at Cade and me. “What’s going on here? Amber? What’s going on?”
Amber looked away without answering.
“This is police business. When the ambulance gets here, we’ll talk. In the meantime, I appreciate your employees directing traffic and onlookers away from us.”
The manager nodded and reluctantly walked toward the employees directing traffic. Cade looked at me for an answer.
“Amber killed Pamela. Didn’t you Amber? Tell detective Starkey what you did.”
Amber had put her head on her arms again and was rocking gently back and forth, sobbing quietly. “It wasn’t my fault. I just couldn’t take anymore. Pamela had it coming, but I’m sorry. Nobody deserved to die that way.”
Cade hung his head for a moment. “Okay Amber, we’ll get an ambulance for you and take a statement from you at the hospital.” Then he looked at me. “You should have waited for me.”
“I thought you would get here faster. And to be honest, I was angry. She didn’t have a right to take Pamela’s life regardless of whether she thought she deserved it or not. I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you, but I really didn’t think she was going to run out into traffic and get hit by a car.”
He shook his head. “I just don’t know what to say to you, Rainey. I’ll need to take a statement from you as well, so don’t go anywhere.”
Amber remained on the hot pavement crying and shaking for a few minutes longer until the ambulance arrived. As much as I didn’t want to feel sorry for her, I did. Here was another young life that was wasted. This time, by the judicial system. While Amber deserved to pay for her crime, it was still such a waste. Both girls had potential to do almost anything with their lives, but their lives were over before they got the chance to live them.
Chapter Twenty-four
Two days later Cade and I were sitting out near the river, a small hibachi barbecue smoldering beneath a maple tree. Ribs, kebabs, and hot dogs were cooking on the grill. I had brought along some of my barbecue sauce and I could hardly wait until lunch was ready. The kids were splashing and playing in the water. I had insisted on them wearing life preservers, much to their chagrin. I was keeping my eye on them, but the older kids were standing right next to the younger kids in the water.
I sat in a folding lawn chair with Cade in his own lawn chair right next to me. He had a bottle of soda in one hand and a baseball hat pulled down over his eyes.
“Do you think this seems a little in bad taste?” he said after a few moments of silence.
“I do think a barbecue might be seen as being in bad taste. However, the kids have been begging me to take them out to the river after we had to cancel our last outing. The smaller kids don’t really understand what happened near here, and I guess the older ones are just concentrating on the smaller kids.”
He tipped his hat back and took another drink of his soda. “Okay, I was just checking.”
“Is Amber still in the hospital?”
He shook his head. “Nope. It wasn’t her hip but her upper thigh that was broken. They put her in a cast, and she’s in county holding. She confessed everything, so hopefully justice will be served quickly.”
“I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around this whole thing. How does she just up and kill her best friend? How did she do it?”
I had waited to ask him these questions until the kids were out of earshot. I didn’t want them knowing about the crime other than it had been solved, and there were some people in this world that don’t understand the value of life.
“She lured Pamela out to the river for a barbecue and camping, promising her there would be a party and more kids would be coming. Pamela was upset when no one else showed up, and Amber pretended she didn’t know why. Then Amber opened up some capsules and put the medicine into some alcohol she had brought. Every time Pamela finished a drink, Amber added more of the medication. When Pamela became drowsy and wanted to go home, Amber insisted she drive.”
“I bet being stood up for a party was a very new experience for Pamela,” I mused and took a sip of my soda.
“I’m sure it was,” he said. “Amber said Pamela had always belittled and controlled her and she thought the only way to finally get her out of her life was to kill her.”
“I keep hearing about her control issues,” I said.
“She said she was afraid to say no to her. It was true that Pamela always got what she wanted and would sabotage pageant contestants, forcing Amber to do her dirty work, just like Sharon told you. Pamela also had a plan to make Amber go along with her as a personal assistant when she won the Miss America pageant, and that was the final straw. Amber wanted free of her. Said she felt trapped.”
“Pamela sure was confident she would win that pageant,” I said. “I can see how Amber felt trapped. But, it seems like she could have just told her no. It would have been hard, I’m sure, but it would have been easier than the situation she’s in now.”
He nodded. “She was afraid of Pamela. Pamela kept her under control by threatening her, telling her she would spread nasty rumors about her. Amber was afraid she would have to be her personal servant for the rest of her life.”
“Kind of dramatic isn’t it?” I said.
“I suppose it is, but she’s a girl that’s been bullied all her life, and I guess in her mind, it seemed like a definite possibility. Her home life wasn’t that great. She didn’t have the support of her parents. So I guess maybe she felt like there was no way to get away from Pamela. She was naïve about the car crash, thinking that if she could get the car to crash into the trees, it would catch fire and Pamela would be burned up. She told herself the sleeping pills would keep her from knowing what was happening and it made her feel better about what she was doing.”
“Okay, but how did Pamela end up in the driver’s seat if she was drugged?” I asked looking at him. “Amber was a lot smaller than Pamela and she couldn’t have carried her to put her in the driver’s seat.”
“Amber pulled the car into a position where it was straight across from those trees with Pamela in the passenger seat. Then she went over to the passenger side, helped Pamela out of the car, and tried walking her around to the driver side. But Pamela was a much taller girl as you said, and being drugged, it was difficult for Amber to get her around to the other side. Pamela fell a few times, but eventually Amber got her into the driver’s seat. And that’s where the brick comes in. Amber thought she could get the car going fast enough to hit the trees for the car to catch on fire. But what she didn’t understand was that the car simply wasn’t far enough away from the trees, nor the brick heavy enough for the car to pick up enough speed to do any significant damage.”
I nodded. “That was one heck of a bad plan,” I said thoughtfully. Poor Amber was clueless and inept. “So when the car didn’t catch on fire, she decided to start the fire.”
He nodded and took a sip of his drink again. “That she did. Amber panicked when all she had managed to do was cause damage to a very expensive car. She remembered the lighter fluid they had used to start their barbecue and got it out of the trunk. She waited twenty or thirty minutes until Pame
la was sound asleep, and then she squirted lighter fluid on her and set her on fire. She had assumed, wrongly once again, that the entire car would catch fire and that we wouldn’t be able to tell that the fire hadn’t started from the accident. She had also cut those branches off the pine trees and tried to light them on fire beneath the car, but the green branches wouldn’t burn.”
I leaned my head back on the seat back and looked up at the sky. “Wow,” I said. “I’d say it was a comedy of errors, but there’s nothing funny about it. Poor Pamela. And as much as I hate to say it, poor Amber.”
“It is a pitiful story isn’t it?” he said quietly looking off to the river where the kids were playing.
“It’s one of the saddest stories I’ve ever heard if you want to know the truth.”
“I keep thinking, if she only would have called it off when the car hit the trees. She could have just said it was dark, and she had an accident. But she panicked, realizing what she did to the car, and realizing she was still stuck with Pamela. I really think that’s what it was. Just complete panic,” he said.
“And she walked back to town?” I asked.
“She said she stayed off the main road and walked through the woods until she got home.”
I shook my head. “This is all sad and kind of depressing. But, I’m glad Pamela got justice. Amber needs to pay for her crime, and I guess that’s the bottom line.”
“That she does,” he said. “You never told me. What made you realize it was Amber?”
“I think I’m getting to be a pretty good sleuth,” I said with a sly grin. “It was the flip-flops you found in the trunk of Pamela’s car.”
He looked at me, one eyebrow raised, questioning. “The flip-flops?”
Barbecue and a Murder Page 12